MacOS

[GloomGenerator]

I'm thinking about throwing one in my G4 but i was wondering what opinions/suggestion people had?

Should I get one of those shrink-wrapped ribbon cables? You know, shit like that.

i thought about SATA, but that's way out of my budget right now. Especially since I'd have to buy a controller AND new drive

[Lancaster]

Do you mean a ATA Hard drive controller card?

Do you already have a 2nd hard drive in your G4 for audio?
If so, what kind of track counts are you getting with it before it chokes?

By "shrink-wrapped" ribbon cables, do you mean the round ones?

[CAPPS]

yeah, good question... i have two ATA drives in my g4 sawtooth, can i put more ATA drives in? i have two more power cables in there, but the ribbon simply only has two connectors, could i possibly get another ribbon that has more connectors and go from there? or am i just dreaming and if i want more hard drives i have to go scsi?

[GloomGenerator]

Originally posted by multitrack mind
Do you mean a ATA Hard drive controller card?

Yes.

Do you already have a 2nd hard drive in your G4 for audio?

Yes.

If so, what kind of track counts are you getting with it before it chokes?

I dunno...haven't choked yet

By "shrink-wrapped" ribbon cables, do you mean the round ones?

Yes.

[Lancaster]

Originally posted by GloomGenerator
Originally posted by multitrack mind
Do you mean a ATA Hard drive controller card?

Yes.

Do you already have a 2nd hard drive in your G4 for audio?

Yes.

If so, what kind of track counts are you getting with it before it chokes?

I dunno...haven't choked yet

By "shrink-wrapped" ribbon cables, do you mean the round ones?

Yes.

Well, if you're not having any problems with your existing drives,I'm not sure why you think you need an ATA card.

I use a Sonnet Tempo ATA/133 card and it works very well. I wanted to be able to get 50-60 audio tracks and I do.

This one...http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_ata133.html

[Lancaster]

Originally posted by CAPPS
yeah, good question... i have two ATA drives in my g4 sawtooth, can i put more ATA drives in? i have two more power cables in there, but the ribbon simply only has two connectors, could i possibly get another ribbon that has more connectors and go from there? or am i just dreaming and if i want more hard drives i have to go scsi?

Most ribbon cables have 2 plugs on them. So, you need some new cables. Buy these from a PC store, not a Mac store, and pay two-thirds less.

Avoid cables over 24" in length. The round ones cost more, but are easier to handle and allow air to move more freely inside the machine.

Carefully read the installation instructions for what ever additional drives you put in there.If you dont get the drive Master/Slave settings right when hooking 2 drives to one cable, you's in a heap o' trouble.

[Save The Pine …]

All ATA cables only have two drive connectors. You can't have more than two drives on an ATA channel.

[Lancaster]

Details,details

I should have said that most ATA cables have 2 drive connectors and a connector at the other end to plug into the motherboard.

:cool:

[CAPPS]

Originally posted by Save The Pine Weasel
All ATA cables only have two drive connectors. You can't have more than two drives on an ATA channel.

is this a fact? is there any exceptions?

[Lancaster]

No, 2 drives per channel is the max.

You can get a Sonnet ATA133 card. It has 2 channels so you can hook 4 drives up to it.

The link is a few posts up.

[urbanscallywag]

Originally posted by CAPPS
yeah, good question... i have two ATA drives in my g4 sawtooth, can i put more ATA drives in? i have two more power cables in there, but the ribbon simply only has two connectors, could i possibly get another ribbon that has more connectors and go from there? or am i just dreaming and if i want more hard drives i have to go scsi?

I've got 3 ATA drives with no extra PCI card in my sawtooth. Two reside at the bottom, on 1 ATA channel, the other one lives under the DVDR, in the area where a zip drive can fit. There is an open connector on the DVDROM cable (unless you've got a zip) and some power cables too. Installing isn't too hard, just make sure you have the jumpers set right.